The ferocious winds associated with Hurricane Beryl have died down, but the winds of change blowing strongly in Washinton, D.C., are now hitting Texas.
Earlier this week, Biden tried to make himself seem like the hero of the hour by expediting the disaster aid request for the state, which was required due to the storm’s impact.
President Joe Biden said Tuesday that the federal government could not distribute emergency relief supplies, including power generators, after Hurricane Beryl hit Texas until the White House was able to “track down” state leaders and get their formal request for a major disaster declaration.Biden’s comments came as Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick is serving as acting governor while Greg Abbott is on an economic development trip in Asia. The president said in an exclusive interview with the Houston Chronicle that he had been trying to contact the governor to get the necessary requests to release the federal aid, which includes manpower and supplies.“I’ve been trying to track down the governor to see — I don’t have any authority to do that without a specific request from the governor,” Biden said.
Texas Governor Greg Abbott challenged Biden’s entire account, saying the allegation was “completely false and bizarre.”
“You would think that if a president were to make an attack like that on a governor, he would have the receipts to prove it,” Abbott said in an interview Wednesday with Bloomberg Television during a trip to Asia to attract investment.“When Joe Biden said this time he called me, he just flat out made it up.”
And, apparently, Biden never called to check on the status of the state after Beryl hit.
Texas Lieutenant Governor Dan Patrick was also angered by Biden’s account. Patrick is serving as the acting governor while Abbott has been on a visit to Asia.
“I am disappointed that President Biden is turning Hurricane Beryl into a political issue. We had a cordial call today that ended up with him granting my request for a major disaster declaration,” said Patrick. “But that’s not good enough for him. He is falsely accusing me that I was not reachable.”Patrick later posted a screenshot of a phone record indicating that Chief Nim Kidd of the Texas Department of Emergency Management had received only one phone call from the White House at 11:49 a.m. Tuesday morning — received while Kidd and Patrick were sitting together.The lieutenant governor also noted that employees from the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) had been with him for three days.“All [Biden] had to do was call them and have them hand their phone to me,” said Patrick.Abbott’s Press Secretary Andrew Mahaleris called the president’s claims “a complete lie.”
And while the hurricane is over, the recovery now begins. Currently, over 1.6 million Texans remain in the dark and without air conditioning as brutal heat and humidity continue.
Hurricane Beryl roared ashore near the Texas city of Matagorda as a powerful Category 1 hurricane early Monday morning and pummeled the region with wind gusts higher than 90 mph, a 3-6-foot storm surge and heavy precipitation…As of Wednesday afternoon, approximately 1.7 million customers are still without power, and crews are continuing to clear debris and replace broken equipment to get electricity flowing once again.”As part of our process to assess the impact of Hurricane Beryl, we’ve walked approximately 4,500 miles of our electric circuits on foot and have used helicopters and drone surveillance to further inspect damage across our service territory,” CenterPoint Energy said in a post on X, formerly Twitter.
Finally, as a palate cleanser for all the hysteria-driven hurricane coverage, I offer this rational and sober perspective:
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